Of breasts and bush

Dara E Healy

MY GRANDMOTHER pushed out her mouth and put the stewed chicken, rice and peas on the plate, ignoring me when I told her I was vegetarian, or that I preferred fish. She had obviously worked out (even before I was aware) that breastfeeding for an extended period would be challenging for me and she was determined “not to have no mirasmee great-grand.”

These memories flooded back as I heard the various public service advertisements and programmes about the benefits of breastfeeding. They reminded me of the Breast is Best campaign when I was younger. I wondered, since countless data has shown breast milk to be beneficial for both baby and mummy, why do we keep having to convince women to choose the breast?

Today, we would describe breast milk as a "superfood." In addition to the essential nutrients in the milk, breastfeeding helps with everything from cognitive development to respiratory-tract infections, childhood obesity, post-natal depression in the mother, gastrointestinal infections and even diabetes.

Sadly, over the decades there has been considerable trauma associated with a practice that should be as natural as breathing. I recall in the first breastfeeding campaign, women needed to be convinced that the act of feeding their babies did not make them less attractive to men.

Now we understand that such opinions would have resulted from misinformation due to "gendered" approaches to women’s bodies. Fortunately, there has been a revolution in how a woman’s pregnant body is seen – modern wisdom is that it should be seen and celebrated, not covered up or viewed as a centre of shame.

Another issue from those early days was the fact that producers of baby formula created advertising campaigns promoting the superiority of their product over breast milk. At one point, doctors and nurses also supported the use of formula. However, all of this began to fall apart when it was realised that in developing countries in particular there was limited access to clean water, so babies were being given contaminated formula.

But it may surprise you to learn that the trauma around breastfeeding goes deeper than dealing with patriarchal ideas about women’s bodies or the less than honest claims of advertisers. Scholars have been exploring the generational trauma behind white enslavers forcing African women to breastfeed their children.

In Mother’s Milk, an exploration of these issues in the American south, researchers note that bottles “…were more willingly given to slave infants when their own mothers’ milk was needed to feed white babies...”

Additionally, slave masters would regularly force enslaved women to wean their babies off breast milk so that they could resume their duties in the fields or the household. Yet, “…ironically, wet nurses had to feed white children until they were about two years old.”

In many ways, attitudes to childrearing are influenced by the ritual, cultural practices of a people. For instance, during pre-independence times in TT, in addition to breastfeeding it was common for ordinary families to feed children something called pap. It was usually a mixture of water and arrowroot, flour or other such starch. Babies and small children would also be given bush tea to help with specific ailments.

Recently, I heard my mother talking about drinking vervaine tea to encourage the production of milk and the practice of gently combing the breast to toughen the nipple for the act of breastfeeding. Over the years, these practices were dismissed as more modern, that is, western approaches to childrearing were adopted.

Indigenous communities around the world have also suffered from loss of traditional cultural practices related to mothering and children as well. Writers focusing on the effects of colonialism on community norms in Canada have pointed out that “women’s acquisition of breastfeeding knowledge and cultural practices was interrupted by the impact of colonisation, patriarchy, residential schooling, and the subsequent loss of knowledge transmission between elders and youth.”

My grandmother also insisted that I give the "chirren" mashed provision, pureed meat and other foods to help them grow well.

It is heartening to see people in our circle now asking about these traditional practices and which herbs to take for belly pain, change of life or other health challenges that affect women.

I believe Ms Ida would be pleased to see this move back towards our traditions. Well, certainly she would push out her mouth to mean, “who don’t want to follow traditions, z’affaire, that’s dem business.”

Dara E Healy is a performance artist and founder of the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN